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Nancy Grace
Nancy Grace Mysteries: The Disappearance of Haleigh Cummings
Aired September 27, 2013 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Tonight on NANCY GRACE MYSTERIES, Haleigh Cummings, a 5- year-old Florida girl, is tucked into bed, but hours later, she vanishes into thin air.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: When I hear the name Haleigh Cummings, so many thoughts collide in my mind -- both caregivers, the dad and the live-in girlfriend, being involved in drugs...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, baby! Baby!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) run up and then (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ronald, he don`t want to do it right here. You got to go to Spinner`s?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He don`t want to do it right here! You got to go to Spinner`s?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, we`ll go over (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where`s he going?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To Spinner`s, right down the road. It`s a little (INAUDIBLE) right down the road. (INAUDIBLE) like, two minutes away (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I was going -- I was going to (INAUDIBLE) where I just met (INAUDIBLE) because it`s off the road, there ain`t nobody there. The house isn`t (ph) nothing (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: ... to the moment I recall Haleigh`s father screaming and bending over double in the front yard when they couldn`t find his little girl...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONALD CUMMINGS, FATHER: I just want my child back, you know?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) somebody to see her, to find her.
CUMMINGS: I want my child back so bad! I`ll give them everything I own! All I want is my child!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: ... to the story about her disappearance from Misty Croslin, the girlfriend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tonight`s bitter cold didn`t keep the Cummings family from coming together and holding their nightly vigil. Ronald Cummings and Misty Croslin stood side by side as they prayed together for Haleigh`s safe return.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look down upon us, Lord, show us mercy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The 5-year-old has now been missing for 11 days. Investigators say new leads continue to come in, but so far, nothing`s panned out. Haleigh`s grandmother, Teresa Neves, says it`s frustrating, but they`re not giving up hope.
TERESA NEVES, HALEIGH`S GRANDMOTHER: I feel like my grandbaby is alive. I pray to God whoever has her is -- is feeding her and taking care of her. I don`t know where she is. I can`t imagine how they got her out of the house. I can`t imagine who -- who would be sick enough to take her from a family who absolutely adores her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators confirm they`ve traveled to Tennessee to interview a relative of Misty Croslin`s. Earlier today, a tip led detectives into these woods south of Satsuma. But searchers came up empty-handed. Police say, like the family, they`re also frustrated but they`re not discouraged. They`ll continue to search and follow up on new leads until the little girl is found.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You know, that little girl never had a chance. And all those thoughts collide, and when all the pieces settle, I see Haleigh Cummings`s face, a little girl who was clearly brutally murdered. Her body has never been found.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She don`t want to eat because her baby hasn`t eat! She don`t know if her baby`s slept!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marie Griffiths and her daughter, Crystal Sheffield, wrapped in each other`s armed. Marie is Haleigh`s grandmother and Crystal is the little girl`s mother. The last time they saw Haleigh was two weeks ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want whoever`s got her to bring her home! That`s all I want is my baby home!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Haleigh`s dad, Ronald Cummings, says he was working the night shift early Tuesday morning and he came home to find his daughter missing. Haleigh was sleeping in the bedroom with her 2-year-old brother and her dad`s 17-year-old girlfriend, who says she didn`t wake up or hear anything. But Haleigh`s grandmother believes the girlfriend knows more.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was the only one there. We all think it. How else -- how else would a kid disappear on your watch?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something had to give. I mean, it`s not like that baby just disappeared out of thin air.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which is why Putnam County deputies are combing the area. Even though there was no sign of forced entry, investigators believe Haleigh disappearance is an abduction. Right now, they have no persons of interest, but say they are following every lead that comes in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want my baby home. Whoever`s got her, I just want them to bring her back!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The only account we have of the night little Haleigh goes missing was from Misty Croslin, the live-in girlfriend of the father, Ronald Cummings.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Misty, how are you doing right now?
MISTY CROSLIN, FATHER`S GIRLFRIEND: I just want her to come home! (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know you`re 17. I can`t even imagine at my age going through this.
CROSLIN: It`s horrible. It`s very horrible. Very.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know, at first, it seems like there`s been a lot of people that have been kind of, like, I don`t understand how this could be the situation, where you don`t hear her. Did you hear anything?
CROSLIN: I didn`t hear anything at all. Nothing. If I heard something, I would have got up because I wouldn`t have let them take her!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what happened?
CROSLIN: OK. I put her to bed about, you know, 8:00 o`clock because that`s her bedtime. She has school. I put her to bed, and her blanket and my blanket -- my blanket was in the bed that they took.
So we had a blanket hanging on the window, and I had to wash that and her blanket. Her blanket -- well, she had peed on her blanket the night before, I guess, and I wouldn`t put it on her because. But it smelled like pee, so I washed her blanket. And I gave her a little sheet to cover up with. And she fell asleep (INAUDIBLE) come in there and put her blanket on here. And then I laid down.
It was about -- I mean, I`m not positive what time. It was, like, 3:00. You know, it was (INAUDIBLE) 3:00, 3:00 o`clock in the morning, I got up and -- I got up because I had to use the bathroom, but I didn`t make it to the bathroom. I seen the kitchen light on. And I walked in the kitchen, and the back door`s wide open. And I didn`t notice about Haleigh then until I seen the back door open. And then I go in the room, and she`s gone!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Ronald Cummings -- and I checked this out myself -- was at work. He had punched a timeclock. He absolutely had an alibi at the time his little girl, just 5 years old, goes missing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUMMINGS: I want to tell them to keep Haleigh`s face out there, and if you have any information leading to her disappearance, to call it in. It don`t matter who it hurts. And I want to let everyone to know that I`m not hiding anything for anybody. And if somebody had something to do with it, let them fry. So be it. Whoever it might be, that`s who it is. Just bring Haleigh home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: He leaves Haleigh and his other son, Junior, there with the live-in girlfriend, Misty Croslin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROSLIN: It`s been hard, but I`m trying to do everything to find her. You know, I`m -- answer any questions I have to because I know I didn`t do anything with -- to that little girl. I would never hurt her. I mean, they love me. They look -- I mean, they look at me like their mom, you know? You ask little Junior, and he`ll tell you, you know? They talk lovely about me, and I`m so good to them kids, real good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And her story is that she puts them to sleep that night around 8:00 PM. She first says she puts them on a mat on the floor together. Later, that gets changed to the two of them being in the king-size bed. At one juncture, she was saying she was in bed with them.
Then around 3:00 AM, Misty Croslin says she gets up, goes to the bathroom, goes back, and notices Haleigh`s gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROSLIN: And that`s all I know, is when I woke up -- when I went to sleep she was there, and then when I woke up, she was gone!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Well, they were all sleeping there together. Haleigh was either right beside her in the bed or only four feet away from her. It would be absolutely impossible for someone to get into the home, take the child and leave, and for her to sleep right through it. Impossible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you woke up, and that was it. You saw the door open. Did you leave the light on or...
CROSLIN: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody turned the light on.
CROSLIN: The lights had to get turned on because I know the lights -- you know, I was in the hallway where the back door is. The dryers are right there. I was washing clothes. And that back door was shut, you know, and then (INAUDIBLE) it`s open.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you take a polygraph?
CROSLIN: I did, but I`m not supposed to talk about that. They told me not to talk about that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you did go...
CROSLIN: Yes. I did take a polygraph.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you passed it.
CROSLIN: I mean, my understanding is that I passed it, you know?
ANNOUNCER: Next, cops begin to analyze the home where little Haleigh disappeared. Nancy Grace takes you on an exclusive walk-through tour. You`ll never guess what`s inside.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The father, Ronald Cummings, who I spoke with many, many times, was at work. He was a crane operator. And at his job, he left every day around 3:00 or 4:00 o`clock in the afternoon and worked through the evening. Every day, it was his practice, just like you or I might lock the door when we leave and turn on the alarm -- every day, it was his practice to go to the back door, make sure it was locked and deadbolted before he left, leaving only one other entrance into the home, that being the front door.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are there at Satsuma, Florida, live there at the crime scene just cleared by police. Joining me, our producer, Marlaina Schiavo, and Teresa Neves, the paternal grandmother of little Haleigh. Ladies, thank you for being with us.
You know, a lot of people have been extremely dubious, doubting as to the girlfriend/baby-sitter story that in the middle of the night, as she slept there in the room, someone came in the home, into the bedroom and took the little girl. And nobody heard a thing.
Marlaina, show me the girl`s room. That`s the first thing I want to see.
MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: OK, Nancy. Well, we`re standing right here. Right beside me on my left is the bed where Misty Croslin was sleeping. And here on the right, we have the bed when little Haleigh was sleeping. And you can see it is all but about three-and-a-half feet from each other.
And this is right where Misty said she got up, and she had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Now, where I`m facing right now, Nancy, is a bathroom. It`s the master bathroom. Through the living room behind me is the other bathroom in the house.
And you have to remember she said that she -- when she got up to go to the bathroom, she saw that the kitchen light was on. The kitchen is over this way. SO that means she would have had to have gotten up and gone out this door and then have noticed.
GRACE: OK, stop. Marlaina, are you telling me that she did not go to the bathroom -- the baby-sitter did not go to the restroom, the master bathroom? She chose, instead, to go out the door, across the kitchen to another bathroom?
SCHIAVO: That is the assumption we are making. We asked Teresa, Haleigh`s grandmother, who`s standing with us. She wasn`t sure which bathroom she used. But if she saw the kitchen light on, she would have had to have used the other bathroom in the home, Nancy.
GRACE: Was the door open our shut, Ms. Neves? Because if the door was closed, that rules out her seeing the kitchen light. So was that bedroom door open when she realized the kitchen light was on?
NEVES: The bedroom door is always open.
GRACE: So they sleep with the bedroom door open.
NEVES: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: Ms. Neves, where was the little brother?
NEVES: He was in the bed right here with Misty.
GRACE: OK. So the -- you`re answering a lot of questions, by the way, Ms. Neves and Marlaina Schiavo. I`m seeing the short distance between the bed -- let`s take a full screen, please, Elizabeth -- the full distance between the bed where Misty Croslin was sleeping and the little youth bed, the day bed, where Haleigh was sleeping can`t be more than about four feet, maybe five feet?
NEVES: I think it`s something like that.
SCHIAVO: Yes. It`s about four feet, Nancy, at most.
GRACE: All right. And the door is open.
NEVES: Yes.
SCHIAVO: The door is open.
GRACE: All right, what more can you tell me, Marlaina?
SCHIAVO: Well, basically, Nancy, we took a walk-through with Teresa earlier, and we were trying to see if the door was loud when it opens, the back door where the intruder came in. We were also trying to see if the floor creaks.
I must say, the floor does not creak. There`s carpeting throughout the home, with the exception of the kitchen. And the back door actually does slam.
Now, Teresa told us earlier that it was the screen door that was propped open with the cinderblock, not the actual main door. But both doors -- both doors -- and I can take you and show you -- will -- they both actually close automatically.
Basically, Nancy, they kept saying that the door, the back door, which we`re about to go to, is about 16 feet from the bedroom. It`s a little bit more than that, actually. If I had to guess, it would probably about 25.
But I`m going to show you the back door and show you how both doors close automatically. So -- and I`m also going to show you the lock because the lock is about three feet from the floor. And we know that that`s about as tall as Haleigh stands.
So here`s the back door, and here`s the lock. It sticks. So -- there you go. Now we open the back door, and here`s the back screen door, the one that was propped open with the cinderblock. OK? Now, if you see, when it closes, it slams. It makes a loud noise. But if you leave this door, this slowly closes, as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: The dad`s shocking 911 call is revealed, and the search for Haleigh begins. What does he suspect happened?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUMMINGS: Hello?
911 OPERATOR: OK, sir, let me talk to your wife. Let me get some information from her.
CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE) (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
911 OPERATOR: Can I talk to her?
CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: OK.
CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE) (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Fast forward, 3:25 AM, Ronald Cummings drives up from work. Instead of seeing his home with the lights off, he sees Misty Croslin, his live-in girl friend, standing, framed there at the front door. He finds out then that Haleigh, his 5-year-old little girl, is gone.
But Misty Croslin, interestingly, has not bothered to call 911. Just moments after Ronald Cummings gets home, she goes and calls 911. She tries to explain what happened. She can`t give a coherent story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Ma`am?
CROSLIN: She was in her pajamas. We were sleeping.
911 OPERATOR: OK. All right. You said your back door was wide open?
CROSLIN: Yes. It was brick, like, it was a brick on the floor. Like, when I went to sleep, it was not like that.
911 OPERATOR: OK, the back door -- listen to me. Your back door was wide open. What are you talking about a brick? What is the brick?
CROSLIN: It`s on the back door, on the stairs. Like, we have a walkway.
911 OPERATOR: And there was a brick laying there?
CROSLIN: Yes. It`s still there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The story doesn`t make sense. She starts talking about the cement block, or the rock, propping that door open. She can`t give an accurate description of Haleigh. She just keeps saying things like, She`s not that tall.
Ronald Cummings can be heard in the back in this 911 call screaming about where is his daughter. And he outright says -- and you can hear it on 911 -- that if he finds who took his daughter, he`s going to kill them, whether he spends the rest of his life behind bars or not. He doesn`t care.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CUMMINGS: I just got home from work. My 5-year-old daughter is gone!
911 OPERATOR: OK.
CUMMINGS: I need somebody to be here now. I`m telling you.
911 OPERATOR: (INAUDIBLE) we`ve got two officers...
CUMMINGS: If I find whoever has my daughter before you all do, I`m killing them. I don`t care.
911 OPERATOR: OK. OK.
CUMMINGS: I`ll spend the rest of my life in prison.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Cops arrive on the scene around 3:40 AM. It`s almost 4:00 o`clock in the morning when they get there. Ronald Cummings is out front. He`s holding his head. He`s bent over. He`s screaming about his 5-year- old girl disappearing while he`s at work. He says -- prepare yourself -- My dumb-bitch girlfriend says my daughter`s missing. And he goes on and on and on.
Then he finally says, You know what? I`ve got a .9-millimeter Baretta in there, and so help me God, if I find out who took my daughter, I will shoot them right through the police door.
ANNOUNCER: Is Misty Croslin`s account of what happened the night Haleigh disappeared unraveling?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROSLIN: If I have something, she wants it. So we eat -- if we buy something for me, we buy the same thing for her. Our shoes -- me and Haleigh have the same pair of shoes. She wanted me to have pink Jordans just like hers. So me and her, like, we -- we try to do everything together.
CUMMINGS: Please, if you have my daughter, bring her home, please. All I want is Haleigh. That`s all I want. I don`t want nothing else but Haleigh. That`s it. Please, if you have her, bring her home. Baby, if you`re watching, you know you`ll always be Daddy`s little girl. I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Haleigh, if you`re out there, Mommy loves you and your daddy loves you! We miss you! And we`ll be right here waiting for you to come home. Please, whoever has her, bring her home! Please! We need her. (INAUDIBLE) we need her. Please, just bring her back!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As you`re aware, we`re now right at over 50 hours in our search, and we still have not been able to locate Haleigh. We have not stopped our search. As you can still see around us, we have numerous assets that are still on the ground here today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Within the first 24 hours, Misty Croslin, the live-in girlfriend/baby-sitter`s, story changed in subtle but important ways. The first time she spoke about Haleigh`s disappearance, she stated that Haleigh was in bed with her. Within just 24 hours, her story changed to Haleigh was in a small bed next to her bed.
Now, true, they weren`t that far apart. But for all you mothers out there that end up sleeping with your children in the night, they crawl in bed with you or whatever, that is an important difference. Was the child in the bed with her, or was the child sleeping in a different bed? Within just 24 hours, her story changed.
Not only that, the distance between herself and the small bed, that story changed, too, from just a few inches to feet -- subtle but important differences in her story within the first 24 hours.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROSLIN: I`m not (INAUDIBLE) I think if they move on to somebody else that there will be more answers. They`re stuck on me, and I don`t have the answers to give to them. That`s why they`ve not got nowhere.
The kitchen light was on. From where my bedroom is, like, the kitchen -- all the lights were shut off in the house when I went to bed. That kitchen light I knew was off when I went to sleep.
So the kitchen light was just glaring into my bedroom. So I got up and went to the kitchen, and that`s when I noticed the back door was wide open. The back door`s open, the screen door`s hold -- holding by a big cement block. And I run back and I tried to call them (ph), and I turned around, and that`s when she was gone.
And I just started freaking out. I was looking under beds, closets, everywhere, screaming her name. Couldn`t find her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: An expert in finding missing people and is well known, Tim Miller of Equusearch -- Tim Miller administers a polygraph to Misty Croslin and reveals that she fails, quote, "miserably," that she was found to be 95 to 99 percent deceptive on every question asked. Miller says that Misty Croslin failed a polygraph, failed a voice stress analysis, and refused to allow herself to be hypnotized.
When we dug further to find out what were the questions that he asked Misty Croslin where she was found to be deceptive on these tests, the three main questions she failed were, Are you hiding information about Haleigh`s disappearance? Do you know what happened to Haleigh Cummings? And do you know where Haleigh Cummings is now? 95 percent to 99 percent deceptive. She completely failed her polygraph. She did as poorly on that polygraph as you can do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CUMMINGS: I just got home from work. My 5-year-old daughter is gone!
911 OPERATOR: OK.
CUMMINGS: I need somebody to be here now. I`m telling you.
911 OPERATOR: (INAUDIBLE) we got two officers...
CUMMINGS: If I find whoever has my daughter before you all do, I`m killing them.
911 OPERATOR: OK. OK.
CUMMINGS: I don`t care if I spend the rest of my life in prison. I`m telling you, you can put it on the quote (ph) and I don`t care.
911 OPERATOR: OK. It`s OK, sir. We go them on the way. OK, can you give me any -- what kind of description of her pajamas that she was wearing?
CUMMINGS: I don`t (EXPLETIVE DELETED) (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: OK, sir. We`ve got them coming, OK?
CUMMINGS: Hello?
911 OPERATOR: OK, sir, let me talk to your wife. Let me get some information from her.
CUMMINGS: I (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: OK. Can I talk to her?
CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)
CROSLIN: Yes?
911 OPERATOR: OK, listen to me. (INAUDIBLE) for some questions. Does the door look like it was pried open?
CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: Does it look like it -- does it look like you had some sort of -- someone tried to enter into your house?
CROSLIN: Hold on.
911 OPERATOR: And another thing, make sure you and your husband don`t touch the door anymore. Don`t mess with the door or anything.
CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)
CROSLIN: No, it doesn`t (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: It doesn`t look like it is?
CROSLIN: No.
911 OPERATOR: OK. Now, listen, tell your husband do not touch anything.
CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE) sideways!
911 OPERATOR: (INAUDIBLE) we`re going to try to get a K9 out there. OK?
CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)
CROSLIN: She does not want (INAUDIBLE) They`re bringing a K9 out here.
911 OPERATOR: The officers are going to come out there and do what they can. We can`t have him screaming and yelling at the officers whenever they get there, OK?
CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE) (EXPLETIVE DELETED) got better people to talk to (INAUDIBLE) (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
911 OPERATOR: What`s her date of birth?
CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE) I`m going to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) kill somebody!
911 OPERATOR: OK. Tell him we understand. (INAUDIBLE) we get her date of birth.
CROSLIN: What`s her date of birth?
CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE) (EXPLETIVE DELETED) find her! Her date of birth...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you take a polygraph?
CROSLIN: I did, but I`m not supposed to talk about that. They told me not to talk about that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you did good.
CROSLIN: Yes, I did take a polygraph.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you passed it.
CROSLIN: I mean, my understanding is that I passed it. You know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you want people to know?
CROSLIN: I just want everybody to know that I didn`t do anything with that little girl! I love her like she`s my own. And I`ll do anything to get her back! And if people think that I had something to do with it -- if I had something to do with it, I knew where she was, we wouldn`t be sitting here today. We would have her. And I don`t know where she is!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s a sweet baby. I can tell.
CROSLIN: She is so sweet. She is (INAUDIBLE) a smart little girl. She`s intelligent, you know? She`s a real good girl, a real good girl.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does your heart -- you say you think of her like your daughter.
CROSLIN: My little girl.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does your heart tell you right now?
CROSLIN: (INAUDIBLE) need to find her, you know? I mean, just find her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You believe she`s still out there?
CROSLIN: Yes. I believe she`s still out there. Someone has her or - - I mean, I don`t want to think of the bad, you know? I mean, that runs through my mind, but I don`t want to think of the bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Haleigh`s dad makes a stunning move, but will it help him get any closer to finding his daughter?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: In a shocking turn of events, Ronald Cummings, Haleigh`s father, just four weeks after Haleigh goes missing from his home while he`s at work, marries Misty Croslin, the live-in girlfriend that many people suspect of being in a conspiracy, or aiding and abetting the disappearance of the little girl. They marry. It was on March the 12th, literally just days after the little girl goes missing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She hasn`t smiled much since Haleigh`s been gone, but Misty Croslin was beaming as she went to the courthouse to get a marriage license with Haleigh`s dad, Ronald Cummings. She smiled as she showed us the engagement ring and told us about the surprise proposal.
CROSLIN: Last night at Chili`s.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did he do?
CROSLIN: He got down on his knees and said, Will you marry me?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Haleigh`s dad said nothing as he left the courthouse, but Croslin told us they`re tying the knot because of Haleigh.
CROSLIN: Everybody`s probably going to take this marriage thing the wrong way, but it`s not. It`s still focused -- everything`s still focused on Haleigh. This is what Haleigh wanted. She`s always talked about it. And even if she`s not with us, she`s still here with us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Misty`s mom accompanied them to the court because she had to give her permission, since Croslin is 17.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`ve been trying to get me to do it for, like, five months, and I told them, I was, like, Y`all need to wait until you`re 18, you know, to know everything that`s going on. Everybody`s trashing them. I`m going to go ahead and let them do it because I know they love her, Haleigh, and I know they love each other and they will be together.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Croslin says if Haleigh were home now, she`d be thrilled and she`d insist of a new ring of her own.
CROSLIN: If I have something, she wants it. So if we buy something for me, we buy the same thing for her. Our shoes -- me and Haleigh have the same pair of shoes. She wanted me to have pink Jordans, just like her, you know? Me and her, like, we pretty much -- we try to do everything together.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Remember, Misty Croslin is the last person who saw Haleigh exactly one month ago, when she tucked her into this toddler bed in her room. And when she woke up, Haleigh was gone. Since then, she`s been scrutinized by the public and questioned multiple times by police.
CROSLIN: I just want to let everybody know that I was home because I did pass my lie detector test saying that I was home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She says she always treated little Haleigh like family, and soon, once it`s official, they`ll be family.
CROSLIN: Everybody knows that I love Haleigh and Ronald and Junior. We`re like family (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: It`s always amazing to court watchers and legal eagles that inmates behind bars know they`re being recorded. They know their telephone calls are being recorded, that their mail is being monitored, that their visits can be recorded, and yet they still incriminate themselves.
Misty Croslin is no different. What`s amazing also about the volumes and volumes of Misty Croslin`s jailhouse communications is she really seems much more focused on the media end, (INAUDIBLE) me (ph), but the media in general, than she is about the little girl, the little girl she allegedly loved, that went missing under her watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROSLIN: Like, I want, like, out.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nancy Grace (INAUDIBLE) probably going to record all this, but I don`t care.
CROSLIN: I don`t care, either. There`s nothing -- I`m not hiding anything, so...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know. If you knew anything (INAUDIBLE) I mean, why would you set there if you knew something?
CROSLIN: Exactly. But tell (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know.
CROSLIN: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will. I`m going to. Don`t worry. You said (INAUDIBLE) really nice?
CROSLIN: I wish I was out there tomorrow so I could be there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know, baby. I don`t know what...
CROSLIN: The only way that -- the only way that I`ll talk to them is if he wants me out on the condition that he does not revoke my bond.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Listen, he told me (INAUDIBLE) everybody`s saying about Casey Anthony, him revoking his bond, or her bond, that`s not what happened. She got out and got in trouble over stolen checks. And the courts revoked her bond. Don`t cry, Sissy.
CROSLIN: I`m not! (INAUDIBLE) I`m just so happy that I`m going to get out.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Them happy tears?
CROSLIN: Yes!
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m so glad to see that smile. Don`t worry (INAUDIBLE) Just hang in.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The accident, two days later, Haleigh come up missing. And everything just went from hell from there. They said, Don`t speak to people, but whatever. They`re stupid for judging us.
CROSLIN: Nobody can judge nobody. God is the only one that can judge anybody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know. They`ll all find out one day.
CROSLIN: Exactly, they will. And I`m going to get on TV and I`m going to go crazy on everybody, and they can all kick my ass.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t see how they get -- I don`t see how they can get you for -- I don`t see how they`re getting you for trafficking, anyways, and...
CROSLIN: (INAUDIBLE) Trafficking (INAUDIBLE) state to state, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I don`t know. I guess it`s -- I don`t know. No, that`s what it is. Trafficking is selling little girls. I mean, they know that you`re not -- you didn`t have them. You were just going to get them.
CROSLIN: Exactly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stupid asses.
CROSLIN: I know. There -- it`s OK because you know what? It`s going to be all right. I got confidence in God. (INAUDIBLE) this girl, like, this one girl, she`s always talking about God, and she`s really helping me, like, a lot, because I`m thinking, thinking more and more every day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You go to sit up. I can`t see you.
CROSLIN: I just got to give my heart to God and he`ll fix it because he won`t give us more than we can handle, you know? God won`t give us more than we can handle. It may seem like it, but he doesn`t.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Giving me more than I can handle.
CROSLIN: No, Daddy, you`re handling it. Yes, you are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not really.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: A sudden surprise. Misty Croslin is pulled out of her jail cell still in handcuffs as cops frantically scour the local river. Is this finally the breakthrough everyone`s been praying for?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Of course, the traditional fallback is to look for sex offenders in the area. And naturally, the police did that. We determined that there were 44 actual convicted sex offenders within a five-mile radius of Ronald and Haleigh`s home -- five miles, 44 convicted sex offenders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Natisha, what can you tell me about what we thought was an ice chest being pulled out of the river last night?
NATISHA LANCE, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: What I can tell you, Nancy, is that we were able to get a shot of this area across from where they are. We went to a neighbor. We were able to sit on their dock and see them putting down a tub into the water, then dragging the tub up, and then sifting through whatever they were coming up with from that tub.
What we were told last night from investigators is that there was no cooler that they found. However, it did appear from different photographs that there was a cooler that was pulled out of the water yesterday afternoon during their search.
GRACE: OK, to you, Marlaina Schiavo. Misty Croslin taken back out of her private jail cell today, rousted out in cuffs, in prison blues, taken down to the dock. And I can see her. There she is between police investigators in plain clothes. And at several junctures, she points out to the water with the cuffs, like she`s showing a specific spot. What happened?
SCHIAVO: Misty was taken out for a second day in a row, Nancy, and this means that she is telling police what she knows. Now, we know that all along, she`s saying she didn`t know anything. And now it looks like from what she told investigators yesterday and what she was showing them today, she is pointing out what may have happened that night that Haleigh went missing.
GRACE: Back to Natisha Lance, standing by there in Satsuma, Florida, at what we believe is going to be officially designated as a crime scene. Everyone, Natisha is standing by at St. John`s River. It`s about three to five miles south of where Haleigh was last seen alive, her own home.
In the last 24 hours, there has been a massive search. Something or somebody tipped off police, scuba divers, cadaver dogs, helicopters, search teams, combing the murky waters of the St. John`s River into the night last night, resuming this morning, when a human identification crime lab vehicle showed up on the scene.
Natisha, what, if anything, did they take away?
LANCE: Well, Nancy, what they are telling us today of 4:00 o`clock this afternoon is that they have not found anything of evidentiary value. However, there are...
GRACE: Whoa! Whoa! Wait! Wait! Wait! What do you mean, "not anything of evidentiary value"? They`re not saying today -- last night they said, police said, We did not find Haleigh Cummings. Today they`re saying, We didn`t find anything of evidentiary value. Why the change-up, Natisha?
LANCE: You`re absolutely right, Nancy. There does seem to be some terse (ph) in words there. Last night, they were saying that they did not find Haleigh Cummings, and today they`re saying that they did not find anything of evidentiary value.
So we don`t know exactly what is going on. However, there were divers who were in the water all day today, sifting through that area. And as Marlaina pointed out, Misty Croslin also appeared to be on the scene today in handcuffs, pointing out something for investigators. So there does continue to be fluid movement at this crime scene, just as you said earlier.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Misty Croslin behind bars. What secrets does she reveal? And do authorities come any closer to finding out what happened to Haleigh Cummings?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROSLIN: They showed me bones, animal bones, telling me this was Haleigh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s what you were doing on the dock?
CROSLIN: Yes. They showed me animal bones, telling us it`s her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why would they do that? (INAUDIBLE)
CROSLIN: I don`t know. I don`t know. But that`s -- that`s wrong. You don`t do something like that. Really wrong. That hurt me. I couldn`t sleep for nights.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was before you were -- before your trial, right?
CROSLIN: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you were in custody (INAUDIBLE) So I mean -- so you`re driving, you don`t know where -- I mean, you probably knew the area.
CROSLIN: I knew the area. But they had, like, a substation down, you know, in Satsuma. So that`s where I thought we were going, and when they said, we`re just going up the road...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: It was approximately one year after little Haleigh goes missing that night that a big drug bust goes down, and that bust was months in the making, Misty Croslin caught on tape with sales to an undercover agent, sales of drugs. Several people were arrested for drug-related charges, but important to this case, Misty Croslin and Ronald Cummings.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
CROSLIN: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
CROSLIN: (INAUDIBLE) hundred in there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) hundred in here. They`re all -- they`re all in 10-packs. There`s 100.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
CROSLIN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So just whenever. I mean...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s going to take a couple days (INAUDIBLE) 200 of them now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I mean -- I mean, I -- I mean, I got -- I got two weeks to play with, dude, so I mean, you know (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Two weeks, whatever.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. I`ll get it for you. No problem. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) In two weeks, I can make the money to pay for them and eat them myself.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
CROSLIN: Uh-oh! (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, do me a favor...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) Down! Down! Down! Down!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Croslin sentenced to 25 years behind bars. Cummings, Haleigh`s father, sentenced to 15 years on drug charges related to hydrocodone.
END
